Tinubu’s ministers of power and foreign affairs resign to pursue governorship ambitions

Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu has resigned from his position, which he has occupied for nearly three years. Adelabu made the news of his resignation public on March 31, 2026, which is the deadline given by President Tinubu to cabinet members who had intentions to contest for public offices in 2027.

In his resignation letter, Adelabu thanked the President for the opportunity to serve and contribute his quota to strengthening the power sector in line with Tinubu's Renewed Hope Agenda.

Adebayo Adelabu's time as Minister of Power hasn't been a rosy one, especially his latter months, when the country was rocked by nationwide blackout over a shortage in the supply of gas to thermal plants, which led to shutdown in operations across the country.

Perhaps, Adelabu's final memorable act as Minister of Power was his recent press conference, where he apologised to Nigerians for the abysmal state of the country's power situation, which he stated was beyond his control. He, however, insisted that the Tinubu administration was doing everything in its power to achieve its goal of increasing the country's grid capacity to 6,000MW before the end of 2026.

Adelabu, who is a trained banker and former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, is reportedly resigning to pursue his ambition of occupying the Oyo State government house as governor in 2027. Adelabu, the grandson of famous Oyo State politician Adegoke Adelabu, previously ran for governor in 2019 and lost to the incumbent Engineer Seyi Makinde.

Adelabu joins the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, who resigned on March 30, 2026, to focus on his ambitions of becoming the next governor of Bauchi state. Like Adelabu, Tuggar's time as Minister of Foreign Affairs was a turbulent one, rocked by the delayed posting of envoys to embassies and the fracture in the relationship with the United States over the killings in the country, which President Trump's government considered an attack against Christians.